Director's Commentary

Director's Commentary of The Craze:

This is the director's commentary for the Craze trailer.

Influences for our Production:

What were the influences of our production?












One of the influences of our film trailer was the antagonist from the film "IT", the clown Pennywise. We wanted the genre of our production to be horror, as well as making the sub-genre to be based around a clown. With the film being released recently, (2017) we felt that we would be able to match the character of Pennywise with our clown that we created. However, we still chose to slightly alter some of the features of our clown, mainly the appearance and personality.

One of our other influences that we had of our production is one of the locations that are shown in the film "Saw." We liked the way that the location is deserted and abandoned. We therefore felt that we could use this in our trailer, which we used towards the end of our trailer.

Questionnaire for our Production

Audience Questionnaire for our Production:

We have created a questionnaire for our audience to fill out. The questions relate to our film trailer for "The Craze" as well as the film poster and magazine cover which we also designed.


1. Do you feel that our film trailer is conventional to the genre of horror?
    Yes:                                                       No:

 2. Do you feel that the protagonists of our production are represented as conventional horror film       protagonists?
     Yes:                                                       No:

 3. What element of our trailer do you feel was successful? 


 4. What element of our trailer do you feel could have been improved?


 5. Did the soundtrack create/add to a mood of fear and tension?
     Yes:                                                        No:

 6. Do our ancillary texts (film poster and magazine cover) look professionally designed?
     Yes:                                                        No:

 7. Does our film trailer, film poster and magazine cover encourage you to want to watch the full production?
     Yes:                                                        No:


Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire.

The Craze Trailer G324 Final

This is our final trailer for G324. It is called "The Craze."

Codes and Conventions

Codes and Conventions:

One convention of the horror genre which we have shown on our film poster is the characters that are involved in horror movies. Our protagonist is portrayed as an innocent teenager, while the antagonist is shown as a ruthless, evil man.

Another horror film poster convention which we have shown is the colour coding. We predominantly used dark colours, such as black and grey top be the background for the poster. This is conventional to the genre as darker colours set the atmosphere of fear.

As for our film magazine, one convention of a horror film ancillary text that we established is the image used. We used a close up of the clown's face as the main image of the magazine. We chose to use this to make it seem as if the audience are interacting with the antagonist, which creates a dark mood. We exploited this further by using direct mode of address, by having the clown staring at the camera, as if he was looking at the audience.

We also used similar colour coding to our film poster, by primarily using the colour black. However, another colour that we decided to use was the colour red. Red connotes blood and violence, which can hint to our audience that this is an element to our film.

      

Final Magazine Cover

This is our final magazine cover.

How we made our trailer seem like a trailer

How have we our trailer seem like a trailer?

This medium shot introduces the trailer and establishes the opening scene to the audience. It is conventional for a horror film by showing the location in a state of equilibrium.

This two shot of our film's  protagonists is used to introduce them to our audience. Having them throwing stones into a stream highlight their innocence.

This medium shot acts as an establishment shot of one of the primary locations from our film. A family home conforms to the conventions of a horror film.

This part of the trailer introduces the audience to the news report. This disrupts the equilibrium, which changes the mood and atmosphere of the trailer.

This is one of several title shots that we have used in our film. This makes our trailer feel like a trailer as all trailers include title scenes. This shot shows the audience the slogan of our film, which is a way of promoting.

This long shot introduces the antagonist of our production to our audience. We used direct mode of address by making him stare straight at the camera, as if he is looking into the eyes of the audience.

This still image shows another two shot of the protagonists. In this part of the scene, they are running away to safety, upon encountering the antagonist. This would make the audience empathise with the characters.

Here we have a medium shot of the antagonist. We feel that this shot is very effective, as it highlights the menacing facial expression of the clown. This will create more fear for the audience, as again the antagonist is staring directly at the audience.

This two shot is key to our film trailer as it is the only scene in which one of the protagonists has encountered the antagonist. This is a prime example of the recognition stage in the narrative of our film. Shannon's facial expressions highlights the fear that she is feeling after meeting the clown.





Here we have another example of a title scene that we have included in our film trailer. This is conventional to all film trailers of all genres, as they are the production credits to our movie.